Monday, July 9, 2012

Hockey, Human Resources and Illinois SHRM

I am very passionate about things that I enjoy, Two of my passions are Human Resources and Hockey, This is an eclectic combination, I understand, but this is who I am. Recognizing that I am passionate about these things, I sometimes contemplate, how do I get better at these things?

Work at them, I must work at them, I resolve. I work to get better. That, I believe is what drives most, people to attend conferences. In looking to express this thought, I turn to a quote from a retired National Hockey League veteran Paul Coffey.

"Nobody's a natural. You work hard to get good and then work to get better. It's hard to stay on top."

So if you subscribe to Mr. Coffey's philosophy, this should be a great reason enough to attend Illinois SHRM in 2012. While I understand there are a myriad of reasons folks may attend, we all want to be on our "A" game, all day -every day. To do this you must know what is happening out in the larger world of business and Human Resources.

This year we will be offering up presentations from some of the folks who are at the forefront of our field. We have four keynote sessions this year

I personally have seen Simon, Joe & Jason as well as Cy present and they were fabulous. Libby's reputation is equal to that of the three that I have seen. All four of these folks can help get you to the top, with their inspirational presentations and writings.

Once you get past the keynote sessions there are 30 other sessions available. Sadly, you will only be able to see five sessions in their entirety, as we have six different presenters in each of the five slots. I reviewed this matrix 30 speakers. I can personally vouch for 18 of the 30. The 18 that I have seen are all great, not good, but great presenters. So all of these folks will hep you to stay on top of your game as well.

Now that is what I would call the ,meat and potatoes of the conference, now if I may I am going to share some of the "bling", the shiny objects that sometime draws other folks in for an event.

We kick off with a bonus pre-conference session, from the TalentNet folks. Craig Fisher (aka Fishdogs) will be bringing their brand of social engagement, tips and tricks and general overall knowledge for those of us in the HR/Recruiting world to ILSHRM on Sunday You won't want to miss this.

We are doing something similar to what was done at SHRM National (in the hive). Geoff Webb and Jeff Waldman will be working with folks who have questions about social media, it use and integration into HR. You can hear what they have planned right here. And speaking of SHRM, you will also get a chance to meet Curtis Midkiff, SHRM's Director of Social Engagement. Curtis will be presenting a session on Monday called Making Sense of Socail Media as a HR Tool.

We will have a hall full of vendors 50+ displaying their wears, showing off the latest and greatest in the HR biz. Be sure to cruise through the hall and see what they have to offer.

Illinois SHRM has assembled a list of social media notables who will be in attendance. They will be tweeting, facebooking, google + ing and blogging about the event from all different angles.

You can meet these folks, talk to them, ask them question and hang with them as we say IRL (in real life). You can also see thier profile here on the blog site.

In addition to this, Kevin Grossman and Meghan Biro are bringing their Twitter Chat called #TChat to Illinois SHRM with a SPECIAL LIVE EVENT with STREAMING LIVE VIDEO thanks to our friends at JSTN. This will take place Monday evening at 5 pm. You can watch, listen, tweet or just lurk. You will see how one of these chats really comes together. And I believe there will be another big announcement coming from #TChat folks while at Illinois SHRM - stay tuned for that.

There is a ton of stuff going on this year. To help keep track of it all, our Susan Avello has put together an app to help you. You can download this app right here.

So come join us, all of us at Illinois SHRM who have been working really hard for last several months to put on a great conference that is innovative, lively, fun, exciting, affordable and enlightening. Hope to see you at the Drury Lane. [Click here to register]